A shapely evergreen can go miles in rescuing a forlorn, formless winter garden.

A shapely evergreen can go miles in rescuing a forlorn, formless winter garden.

Pyramidal yews, smartly clipped and just dusted with snow makes a stately image in the garden.

Dwarf Alberta spruce, if they are healthy and well cared for, adds a strong architectural imprint despite their small size.

Hemlocks of any size or shape will add an ethereal beauty to the garden. They have a lightness of spirit that is missing in some of the more rigid, dense evergreens. Treat your hemlocks with respect though, they are rather unforgiving of a bad location in the garden. Protect them from winter winds and give them some decent soil and moisture to help them become established.

Boxwood wins the prize for beauty and usefulness. In our small front yard, we planted them about 20 years ago to cover up a homely foundation, and they have looked beautiful and worked hard ever since. They are an especially lovely backdrop for spring flowers.

To see a perfectly pruned boxwood hedge shaped into an intricate pattern is a delight in any season.

Depending on the type of boxwood planted, the leaves can be a deep green or take on a sun-kissed bronze tone. At the Royal Botanical Gardens, boxwood is planted in a beautiful knot pattern at the Laking Garden. The boxwood was bred by Sheridan Nurseries years ago and is very winter hardy and has a warm golden tone in winter light.

Hardiness is a blessing with boxwood. It can be damaged by heavy ice or scorched by road salt, but a judicious spring pruning always seems to restore boxwood to vigour. It is a plant that rarely needs a burlap blanket.

There are many evergreens to choose from and all will create pattern and shape in the muted winter garden.

A brief browse through the Vineland Nurseries catalogue (905-562-4836, 4540 Martin Rd., Beamsville) will create evergreen envy in any sceptic. I counted just over 60 types of false cypress and nearly as many interesting spruces.

One of my favourite conifers is the Serbian spruce. I bought a dwarf form years ago and it has ever so slowly inched upward, while maintaining it's strict, dignified pyramidal shape.

Vineland Nurseries sells a dwarf form called Pimoko, which seems to grow just an inch a year. It's great for small gardens.

If I were smarter, I would have planted more unusual pines when our garden was first started.

We have a Mugo pine but who doesn't? Nearly every garden could accommodate the very small Bristlecone pine and a dwarf form of the graceful Eastern white pine.

Whether the evergreen is a stand-alone specimen or forms a hedge or intricate knot, the solid silhouette will punch up the profile of the winter garden.

Kathy Renwald is producer and host of Gardener's Journal. Email her at gardenersjournal@sympatico.ca.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.